Rapid advances in technology have created computerized tools that enable companies to better interact with their customers. Such tools are one component of Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”), a management philosophy in which a primary theme is the value of building equity in the relationships with customers. As this relationship equity builds, the customer's attachment and loyalty to the company increases, the likelihood that the customer will switch to a competitor decreases, and the company's sales to that customer inevitably increase.
The Internet Age has increased customers' expectations about the ease and speed with which activities should be handled. While the average United States company loses 15%–20% of its customer base each year, high churn sectors—such as telecommunications and airlines—can have up to a 40% annual customer attrition rate. Keeping customers relies, in part, on maintaining their loyalty and building relationship equity. To improve customer satisfaction, and therefore customer loyalty, call center computer systems should maximize the representative's ability to serve customers. Historically, traditional call centers only handled telephone calls from customers. To offer better service, newer contact centers allow representatives to perform sales, service, and support functions with customers via many communication channels, including telephone, fax, e-mail, web, and IVR (“interactive voice response”).
The enhanced functionality of such contact center computer systems assists representatives in being more efficient in dealing with customers. This is economically important since labor costs make up more than 60% of a contact center's operating budget. For a typical company spending $500 million annually on customer interaction, shaving just one second off the average length of a customer contact can save $1 million each year.
What is needed in the art is a contact center that includes enhanced processes and computerized systems that work to enhance the service to customers and the efficiency in doing so. The solution should integrate with existing contact center tools to leverage software that is either available from third party vendors or that has already been developed in-house. In addition to improving the computer systems of contact centers, there is a need to improve the human performance aspect of the centers.